Technology for dummies

It seems like absolutely everything I own is dying.  Every piece of technology I have is dying, and it makes me sad.

I liken my iPod to an elderly person: it knows its time is coming.  (that was very ruthless) I've had my Touch iPod for over two years now, as I bought it for myself on my 18th birthday - with my own money, no less.  A few months ago I accidentally dropped my iPod flat, screen down, on my tiled kitchen floor, and for some reason that drop was a fatal injury.  And so appeared the infamous spider web crack across the whole screen.  I popped sixty dollars (not too bad) to fix the screen after a month of looking at it with a frown across my face; they did a very good job.  Now, though, when I apply pressure to the left side of the screen - so, pretty much, when I brush the Touch iPod with my touch - it makes an awful static noise which I can't imagine is any good.  Whenever I play my Born This Way Revenge game (...yup) and I'm tapping to the beat for points, all I hear is crazy static over the music.  To add to that, my iPod no longer registers my alarm clock dock, so I more often than not wake up to a completely dead battery despite "charging" it all night long.

My laptop - praise Jesus it's working right now - has experienced so many viruses it's ridiculous.  I usually get them when trying to watch things online, yet I never learn.  My internet protection has expired, so I'm using some program I found off Google, which is just swell.  (huh, when you type Google without a capital G, it's recognized as spelled incorrectly.  Pretentious)  The port in which to charge it rarely works, and when it does work, the power cable needs to be at the exact perfect position to even register a charge.  Now, my laptop rattles.  It physically rattles.  I'm praying to god it's only something caught in the fan, but due to my paranoid Googling, it could be my hard drive, and with every passing minute I cringe at the idea of losing all of my files and music and play counts on iTunes.  (fun fact.  16/25 Most Played Songs on my iTunes are Lady Gaga; every song from her Fame Monster CD has +100 plays, and Born This Way is nearing that, only I hate some songs; my highest played song is Alejandro with - wait - 849 plays.  I'd be devastated to lose all that) I'm planning on backing everything up on an external hard drive, just in case.

For as much time that I spend on my computer, I am technologically impaired.  I have the worst luck.  For some reason, my parents equate lots of time on the computer with being a computer whiz, and they're usually like "go work at Best Buy or at a computer support place!" but no thanks.  I don't know my way around computer parts or intricate programs or upgrades; hell, I'm usually either on Facebook or building houses on the Sims 3 when I'm on my computer.  Unless someone had an issue with the walls of their Sims' dream house, I'll be no help.  (I've been so bored this summer that I built the X-Mansion and made my family up of Xavier and Erik and the characters from First Class.  Oh, dear god)

Things are on the up and up.  My parents finally bought a PS3, and when my sister isn't playing NHL '11 like a madwoman, I'm shooting zombie after zombie on Resident Evil 5 which I've been dying to play since it came out.  (I only have a rusty PS2 which actually doesn't even work now, either.  Oh, and a Wii.  But the novelty wore out the evening of the Christmas we got it) I'm thinking I'll try to smuggle the PS3 out with me when I move out in September.  Fingers crossed.